the via egnatia: rome`s traverse of a multi

From Durres to Istanbul, through
Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, may be traced the Egnatian Way.
Completed in the second century B.C.,
the military road served as a tenuous
link through the Roman Balkan provinces, had its key sector in Macedonia,
and has today military and political
significance. The theme concerns the
itinerary, locale, development and
persistent importance of this ancient
routeway.
The Military and Political Prologue
THE VIA EGNATIA:
ROME'S TRAVERSE
OF A MULTI-CULTURAL
MARCHLAND
C. Philip Curti*
'Dr. Curti is Professor o f Geography at No rth Texas State
University, Denton , Texas.
Where the Balkans narrow between
the Ionian and Thracian Seas from
present Durres to Salonika, is part of
the shortest land-sea route from Rome
to Istanbu l. On Otranto's western
shore, north of Brindisi at the ancient
terminus of the Via Traiana from Rome,
lies the site of Gnathia which gave its
name to the trans-Balkan frontier trail.
From Gnathia to Apollonia was the
shortest water-crossing between Italia
and IIliricum.
During the fourth century B.C., the
Athenian empire encircled the Aegean
Sea, Epirus tended to be independent,
and Thessaly allied to Athens. Northward limits of Athenian control on the
mainland approximately the latitude
of Mount Olympus, and beyond the
Haliacmon was Illyria and Macedonia.
One of Alexander's first tasks was to
control Balkan waist from Apollonia to
the Hebrus, enforcing subservience of
peoples such as the Paconians, Agrianis
and Thracians and using those marchlands to exclude inroads from Illyria
and Tribali along the lower Danube.
As a result of the first Punic War
(238 B.C.), Rome acquired a foothold
across the Otranto in the Apollonia
area closing the Macedonian door to
the Adriatic.! Having established this
beachhead, lines of communication
were a necessary pre-requi site to firm
control of the lands south of the Dan9
ube and incorporation into the East
Roman Empire.
Bunbury notes that Strabo's knowledge of the interior, particularly the
ethnological relationships of peoples,
was " extremely obscure"2and that general information of the wild tribes was
limited to observing that "they were
imperfectly subdued.,,3
Whereas Apollonia was an effective
military site controlling the lowland
access northward from Epirus, the deep
water protected by the peninsula at
Dyrrhachium (modern Durres) also had
the advantage of being strategically
safer for naval and mercantile operations by being protected by the military post at Apollonia on the south,
and by its easier access to the Scumbi
(Genusus) through the Candavian
Mountains to Lake Lychnites (Ohrid),
and for a northward penetration via
the Drin into the Pristina plain. Thus
a two-pronged thrust could be made
to the Morava-Vardar : the more northerly would penetrate Moesian lands,
the subjugation of which was not accomplished until B.C. 29 and had to
be a secondary action to clasping the
Balkan waist with a firm military routeway to the head of the Gulf of Therma .
Clodiana was a natural meeting point
of the road s from Apollonia and Epidamnus en route upstream the Genusus . Two principal alternatives
appeared : one could move south and
east to reach the Eordaicus tributary
of the Apsus to flank southward Lakes
Ohrid and Prespa, then following the
chain of lakes from Kastoria to Edessa.
The more direct route eastward had
Cl sharp col above 1000 meters at about
3 miles from the west shore of Lake
Ohrid : the clockwise encircling route
north of Lake Ohrid led to lowland
more quickly in the Struga basin and
the pass to Bitola was easy to traverse.
During the third century B.C., Roman
interest in ea stward territorial expan10
sion led to the construction of the Via
Egnatia, the Roman routeway from
Dyrrhachium and Apollonia in present
Albania, to Thessalonika and Byzantium by the strategic Propontis. Classic
geographers concerned themselves
considerably with topographical descriptions of the wild and barbarian
Balkans, and Erathosthenes estimated
the distance between the Adriatic and
Aegean as 900 stadia (90 geographical
miles) and
"Polybius, fol lowing the line of the
Egnatian Way, gave the distance
from Apollonia to Thessalonica as
267 Roman miles or 2136 stadia.'"
Later than the Via Traiana, the Via
Appia was completed in 312 B.C., and
it was not until almost two centuries
later, that the Via Egnatia provided a
satisfactory routeway to the Hebrus
River, the modern Maritza, beyond
which the Egnatian Way was never
demarcated. The Roman completion
of their military roads contributed
materially to geographical knowledge,
for they marked and measured miles
along them, but no conversion was
accomplished from itinerary miles to
sextant-computed miles:
The routeway was designed for
rapid courier and military service, and
shortened the sea distance of 800 miles
and 20 days from Brindisium around
the stormy Malean Promontory at the
south of the Peloponessus, to Thessalonika on the Gulf of Therma, to a sealand route of about 250 miles, traversible in forced marches in 12 days.
The Macedonian March/and
This remote isolated land, not unexpectedly, became a refuge for migrant
peoples some of whose languages have
yet to be traced with certainty. One of
the archaeological sites in the Macedonian plain near modern Nikomedia,
is identified as the oldest dated Neolithic community in Europe.· Estab-
\>-
, .. N
JO
•
•
....
....
J~~ '00
2000
CLASSICAL TOWNS
MODERN TOWNS
o
11m
mllu
- ,
P, O'• . lUI
lished about 6220 B.C, there are clear
cultural affinities with Hacilimon in
Asia Minor, Hassuna in Iraq and the
Pannonian plain to the north. Evidence
of the inspiration of domestication
from the Middle East through mixed
farming and herding, sheep and goats,
wheat and barley, suggests that migrant
folk settled very early in the Macedonian plain.'
Since that time, the major infiltrations have been from the north: after
the 6th century B.C, entry via the
Morava-Vardar and the Pelagonic passways, has admitted Turanic groups,
followers of Attila the Hun, Serbs,
Bulgars, and Albanians, while Greeks
and Osmani Turks filtered northward
to complete Europe's most racially and
ethnically complex region.
The Greek core area being isolated
in the south of the Balkan peninsula
would vitiate lands north of the Haliacmon to being more than a marchland, but the Macedonians whose
homeland was a fertile plain encircled
by a horseshoe of highlands, between
600 and 340 B.C, exhibited a political
ascendancy, making it a target for incursions by indigent mountain peoples
and major intrusions through the
Pelagonic and Axius passways from the
interior. This was evidenced by being
the route of the Galatians in 279 B.C
and by " the hard tussles which the
Antigonid kings had to sustain against
the Dardanian invaders from the northwestern highlands."·
Thus, from the time of Philip II,
Macedonian kings indulged in military
essays thrusting to the Danube (Alexander, 335 B.C) and to the Adriatic
(Cassander 314 B.C) . After Rome's
acquisition of the Illyrian bridgehead
in 229 B.C the Romans waited until
mid-century to expand and consolidate
their Macedonian holdings, and it was
the establishment of the Via Egnatia as
a logistic line of support that had to
12
precede a military accomplishment
here.
Much had been surveyed durfng
Roman efforts to subdue Macedonia
and the tumbled lands north to the
Danube, but then as now, this was the
most wild and unknown part of Europe,
and the legions were constantly subjected to guerrilla attacks from tribes
in IIlyricum, Moesia and Thrace.
Ancient trails and footpaths were
systematically graded and their surfaces hardened to permit all-weather
use. The myriad of meandering tracks
would not have evolved into the vitally
strategic artery without the military
and political planning of the burgeoning Roman Empire.
The Unifying Road
It was to this multi-cultural area that
Roman influence was to be, at least
temporarily, a unifying factor. The rewards were enticing. There was the
military need to consolidate the lands
south of the Danube; a military road
to the strategic narrow ways of the
Bosphorus-Marmora-Hellespontwould
place Rome closer to Byzantium and
the Persian Road to the Fertile Crescent. The region was not without its
economic wealth: the horses of Thrace
were famous from Homeric times; they
provided cavalry for Philip the Great
and Bucephalus for Alexander: Mount
Pangeus had wealth in gold; the plains
of Phillippi, the scene of the BrutusOctavius battle, was near tin and silver
mines. The coniferous forests provided
timber and tar for ship building, as well
as resin for cough medicines prescribed
by Greek physicians. Epirote dogs were
sought for their hunting skills and good
clay was available for brick making.
The great Roman highways were extended into the Balkans in 145 B.C and
joined the Persian Road at the Bosphorus about 130 B.C So far there seems
to be little evidence of archaeological
research involving the cutting across of
sections of Roman road beds in the
Mediterranean area away from the major sites of Roman construction . Most
findings appear to be consistent with
the description of Stratiu s (A.D . 90) of
the con struction of the Via Domitiana
in Campania.
" The first task," wrote Strati us, " is
to begin the furrow (sulci) and to
open out the track, and then with
deep digging to hollow out the soil.
Next fill the hollow trench with
other materials and prepare a lap
(grenium) on which the road surface may be laid, lest the ground
give way or the spiteful earth provide an unreliable road bed for the
rammed blocks. Then with closeset curb stones (umbones) on both
sides, and with many cramps, they
bind the road together."lo
Where traffic was less, particularly
where courier, foot traffic and lighter
vehicles predominated, the road material was laid on the original ground,
without any attempt at embanking.
Road embankments would be more
liable to erosion, would need ramps
to reach the higher levels from crossing tracks, and one may assume that
roads in the Balkans were seldom
raised above the natural terrain except
where marshy or flood-susceptible
land had to be traversed . Romans were
never so rigid in their routeways to
insist on straightness at the expense of
unnecessary bridges or steep grades.
Th e Itin erary
The routeway of the Via Egnatia
from the Adriatic, first had to climb
to a 1300 meter col in the northern
Pindus Range between the Jablanica
and Kamia ridges that reach almost
2300 meters in elevation . A rapid drop
and then a skirting of Lake Ohrid
brought travelers to Heraclea (modern
Bitola ) and then the Florina basin
drained by the upper Haliacmon southwards, and by the Crna tributary of the
Vardar, no rthwards.
In the Lyncestis plain on the watershed between the headwaters of the
Haliacmon and the Erigon (Crna) , there
seem to be three minor variants on the
route from Heraclea to the Keiii Pass.
The itineraries cited in Leake, Itinerarium Antonini, Tabula Peulillgeriana ,
ltinerarium Hierosolymitanum are unclear, and in the field the indications
are that the shortest-line-of sight route
was less favored than the lower more
easily traversible flatlands:'
Here still, pastoral elements predominate, but maize, wheat, tobacco
and some sturdier fruits such as pears
and apples occupy the basin floors
where the drainage is more positive.
The sharp ridge of the Voras Mountains required the Via Egnatia to make
a steep twisting climb near Vevi to the
Kelli Pass at 1000 meters elevation
above Lake Ostrovo (ancient Bigorritis), which has no surface outlet, but
probably feeds the miniature Niagara
at the springs and falls of Edessa. To
this point there are fewer than 10 persons per square mile on either side of
the Roman routeway, except in towns.
East of Edessa, below the falls, above
which there is now a hydroelectric
plant, begin the plains of Macedonia
where irrigation water is plentiful and
the chill winds of winter are less hostile
to human habitation, and the fertile
core area that formed the logistic base
of Alexander's Empire is one of the
most agriculturally productive in the
Balkans. The fields are often hedged
by fruit trees, plums, walnuts, almonds
and vines, and rather rarely, the olive.
Larger towns such as Edessa and Yiannitsa are on the foothill apron where
streams are most persistent and Pella,
the birthplace of Alexander, was similarly sited, then within a league of the
shoreline at the estuary of the Therma.
13
=
The marshy shore of the Axius-silting
Thermic Gulf at Salonika was not a
principal terminus of the Egnatian Way;
rather was the ancient Argolis, where
with Amphipolis on the Strymon, was
deeper water to the east of the Chalcidian neck and a sheltered terminus for
the trans-Aegean voyage to Troy.
The Via Egnatia continues past Phillippi across the Nestos, beyond Xanthi
to the Hebrus, but never seems to have
been properly surveyed or completed
to Byzantium to the Bosphorus. To the
Romans, the vital section of this road
ended where the rich Macedonian
plains were traversed, where the entry
to the Vadar gap to Skopje was controlled, and where a port existed from
which punitive operations in the Hellespontine area could be pursued.
Whether it was Philip the First or
Second of Macedon , or his more
renowned son Alexander, or whoever
wished to strike at Athens, the sensitive grain artery from the Scythian
Plains through the Hellespont to Attica,
had to be severed. Thus Alexander and
Macedonia had also to become a naval
power. When the Romans fought
Rhodes, they denied them the lumber
they needed to the Rhodian economic
and naval ruin. " The Romans, brilliant
geograp hers and military strategists
that they were, realized the importance
of the Macedonian march lands. They
established a military all-weather rightof-way with way-stations one day's
march apart with strong military posts,
such as at Heraclea and Pella . The latter
was strategically located on the southern slopes of the Emathian hills between Edessa's springs, the Axius gateway to the Vardar-Morava gap and
overlooking the Macedonian grain
fields. These major military posts, by
exacting levy from the local landsca pe,
became magnificent centers of culture,
emulating in their art and architecture
much of Athens and Pompeii .
14
Epilogue and Prospect
The Egnatian Way was based on
ancient foot and donkey trails; it was
most difficult from the Adriatic to Lake
Ohrid of salmon-trout fame, had its
key section from the Pons Servilius at
the water exit of Lake Ohrid, to the root
of the Athos peninsula at Amphipolis
which port presented the shortest sea
route from Macedonia to Byzantium
or Troy. Much of the key section, between Struga and Salonika is now
followed closely by narrow asphalted
roads.
The Via Egnatia formed one of the
key arteries of Rome's Empire, and today is being exploited by the touristconscious government as the " Greek
Road," meeting the Yugoslav border
at Nikki . Ancient cities and Roman
military posts and way stations now
function in modern guise, and the persistent significance of the Egnatian Way
is forcibly impressed upon the traveller
who gives way to the Albanian trucks
en route to the Free Port at Thessaloniki
near where Alexander's port and birthplace is now a dozen miles from the
Thermic Gulf. There is also the realization that should the Soviet fleet control
the Kithrai Channel, the line of communication from the Strait of Otranto
to the Gulf of Therma may be the only
remaining option for access to the
Dardanelles.
The major unifying factor in this
marchland of multi-cultural complexity, is the Via Egnatia, and could
be instrumental in generating a Pax
Balkania or controlling military and
political penetration of the Mediterranean . Near the terminus of this transBalkan route on the Otranto Strait, the
sheltered anchorage east of Corcyra
harbors U. S. and Italian visiting warships. Soviet vessels voyage to the
narrow seaways of the Aegean, skirting
the easterly reaches of the old Roman
road. The po rtent of the naval activity
contra sts with the linking pastoral
peace that characterizes the ancient
Egnati an Way.
'Dr. Curti is Professor of Geography at North Texas
State Universi ty . The paper was presented at the Annua l
Meeting of the Association at Santa Cruz in 1970 a nd is
a sequel to field work in the Ba lkans duri ng 1967 and
1969.
II )
William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, (New Yo rk:
Henry Holt and Company, 1911), p. 35.
(' ) E. H. Bunbury, Histo ry 01 Ancient Geography, (New
York : Dove r Publications, 1959). Vol. (), Chap . XVII,
p.264.
(3) Ibid. p. 265.
(' ) Ibid. p. 27.
(S)
Loe. Cit.
(' ) Robert Rodden , "An Early Neolithic Sett lement in
Greece," Scientilic American, Vol. 212, No.4 (1965),
p. 83.
J. E. Dixon , et a/., " Obsidian and the Origins of
Trade," Scientific American, Vol. 218, No . 3 (1968),
p.44.
( 8 ) M. Cary, The Geographical Background to Greek and
Roman Histo ry, (Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1949), p.
302.
(9) E. G. Semple, Geography 01 the Mediterranean
Region, (New York. Henry Holt , 1931 ), p. 277.
( 10 ) C. Singe r, et al. , A History 01 Ancient Technology,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), Vol. II ,
p.500.
( 11 ) Wm . M . Leake, Travels in No rthern Greece, (Lond o n :
1843), p. 39. Leake notes (he difficully of deducin g
exact portions of the road between Lychnidus (Ohrid)
and Edessa, but adds, " The road crossed a bridge
name d Pons Servilli which could have bee n no other
than a bridge over (he Orin, ancie nt Orilla, at its
issue from Lake Lychnitus."
The re is no present visib le evidence of the ancient
bridge today. Lake Ohrid has decreased in size and a
modern weir and concrete walls curb Lake Oh rid' s
outlet.
(1' ) Wm . M. Leake, Via Mifililris Romanorum Egnatiae
qua IIliricum Macedonia et Thra ce, (Tubingen, T.l.F.
Tate l, 1841 ), pp. 1-4.
(13 ) Semple, op. cit. , p. 277.
(7 )
15